Creature rendering distance

[Legacy_Proleric]

               Is there any way to increase the distance at which the engine stops rendering creatures?

It's just plain weird that they disappear before the fog engulfs them.

With placeables, I can work around the problem by making them static, but, despite searching, I haven't found a similar dodge for creatures.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

Proleric, some years ago I came across a method to increase the creature viewdistance by modifying some 2da or other in the Omnibus.  It may have had to do with ranges.2da, maybe something else.  Maybe a combination of something elses.  This was quite a while ago.  I explored whatever method it was a bit and, IIRC, found that it could cause negative unintended consequences, performance-wise.  Pretty vague, I know, but the "tweak", whatever it was, was one of my candidates for unexpected, mysterious lag I encountered on certain servers I had played on.

 

If you come across something that achieves what you're looking for, give it some thorough testing and make sure that whatever you do doesn't knock something else off kilter.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               

Are you sure @OldTimeRadio?

 

I remember that discussion way back with also the doors. Everything that is dynamic and popped out of nowhere realy bugged me at one time but no one had a solution and so i just thought, ok... well next project please '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the thread I was thinking of (pretty busy today) but the particular method I dug up worked and then I came across complications, as I said.  Again, I know it's a vague statement to make because I'm not actually addressing one particular method and saying "Oh, this works but also has these drawbacks", I'm just tossing out a word of caution.  Sometimes I'll either learn of some method or discover one and do work using it without really testing it thoroughly only to have it blow up in my face a week or two later because I never fully tested (whatever it was) to make sure it was going to worked like I thought it worked, heh heh!

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               Thanks for the info/warning... I did look in the Omnibus before posting, but maybe didn't use the magic words... I'll scout around the 2da angle.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

I have to side with OTM on this. It has been a problem from day one, but I too remember someone came up with a fix-ish. It had to do with 2DA, ambient, lighting and fog tweaking. It was kind of covering for the popup, rather than making it wider or farther or whatever.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_virusman]

               Creature rendering distance is handled by the server - basically, the client doesn't know anything about object's existence until the PC is within a perception distance from the object. Edit ranges.2da to increase PC's perception range. Note that this will affect performance in multiplayer, since clients will render more objects and server will have to send more object updates & combat data.

NWNX Visibility allows for more fine-grained tweaking such as per-player visibility.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               So far, that works perfectly for creatures in my SP project, on a decent laptop, even in the largest, busiest area. Thanks!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               ...but there is a downside; during combat, distant creatures disappear. I'm guessing that the engine over-rides the 2da setting for the duration, as the creature reappear when combat ends.